Service is free and open to all legal aid providers for business continuity and LAA contract compliance issues arising directly from the COVID-19 crisis

LAPG has launched a dedicated email support service for legal aid providers. The service has been created with support from The Legal Education Foundation to assist with LAA contract compliance and business continuity issues arising from the COVID-19 crisis. This service is free and open to all crime and civil legal aid providers.  It is not restricted to members of LAPG.

If you have an existing consultancy retainer service (for instance with DG Legal, JRS Consultants etc.) then please direct your queries to that service first.  We need to focus our limited resources on those without recourse to other compliance advice services.  However if your normal retained consultants can’t assist then we will help through this service.

This service is supported by a pool of consultants, such as Vicky Ling and Matthew Howgate, with a broad range of expertise in business planning, risk management and LAA contract compliance. If we cannot provide a response to all or part of your enquiry we will endeavour to point you to alternative sources of advice.

To submit an enquiry please email: covid19-support@lapg.co.uk

We have tried to create a service that is simple, quick and effective, but please note that:

  • We will respond as soon as we possibly can and, for non-urgent enquiries, will ensure we respond within 3-5 working days.  If your enquiry is urgent and you need a response sooner than 3-5 working days please clarify the reason for urgency within your enquiry. If for any reason we cannot respond within 3-5 working days we will contact you to explain and set out when we will be able to provide a response.
  • Any legal aid compliance and business continuity advice and guidance given via this service is intended to help but is not legal advice and you rely on it at your own risk.  Neither LAPG nor the consultants working on this service are responsible for any losses you incur as a result of relying on advice or guidance given through this service. No guidance issued through this service has been approved by the LAA.
  • We cannot provide advice on government schemes such as furloughing, accessing loans (etc.) or financial issues which should be directed to your organisation’s accountants or the government department operating the particular scheme.
  • We anticipate that this service will run for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis. All enquiries submitted to this service will be kept confidential by LAPG and any personal data will be processed in line with our Privacy Policy.  We will retain a record of each enquiry for the duration of the service and may use anonymised details to formulate an FAQ document, to inform our policy work, or to report on issues and trends to our funder(s).